REVEALED: Cost of Lok Sabha Polls doubles, amount goes up to R 3500 Crores!

New Delhi: The upcoming Lok Sabha elections will cost nearly Rs. 3500 crore exclusive of security expenses and the amount which will be spent by the political parties, as estimated by the Election Commission. It is notable that the amount is double the money (Rs 1400 crore) spent on 2009 polls .

 

Also, the other expenses include paying money to the officials who help in the election related work. Most of EC officials travel around in various states and attend the training sessions.

 

The Election Commission also conducts campaigns and video graph campaigning. Such measures have led to a hike in the expenses of manifold in the recent times.

 

One of the officers of EC said that 'Every state will send the expenditure statements to the Centre for reimbursement. The Union law ministry will peruse the statements and reimburse the states. The EC's preliminary estimate for this Lok Sabha election is around Rs. 3,500 crore. The final amount may be more or less'.

 

Praveen Kumar, the chief electoral officer in Tamil Nadu said that during Lok Sabha elections, the security expenses are borne by the respective state governments. He told 'The expenses are on the rise due to increasing use of electronic equipment. We use technology from the stage of enrolling voters to the counting exercise. The honorarium paid to officials is rising for every election'.

 

The first general elections were held in the year 1952 in the country which had costed Rs. 10.45 crore. Since then, the cost has gone up for the Parliamentary elections which are considered to be the biggest democratic exercise around the world. The costs have been increasing mainly because of inflation. Also, the EC runs various campaigns around the country for the awareness of people.

 

EC has been trying to teach the public about the digitalized voting system and draw more votes. It also makes efforts to prevent the buying of votes in various states. The officer of EC said 'The expenses have increased in the last five years. Six months before polling, EC starts campaigns across the country asking people to enroll. We release advertisements, visit places and stage street plays. After the rolls are finalized, they are digitized'.